Device for determining the genunieness of bank notes, etc.



April 25, 1939 J. H. RUTH DEVICE FOR DETERMINING THE GENUINENESS OF BANK NOTES, ETC

Filed May 14, 1955 INVENTOR. @1226 'fi ATTORNEY.

Patented Apr. 25, 1939 UNITED STATES DEVICE FOR DETERMINING THE' GENUINE- NESS OF BANK NOTES, ETC.

John H. Ruth, Brooklyn, N. Y. Application May 14, 1935, Serial No. 21,314 6 Claims. (01. 35- 24) My invention relates to improvements in means for determining or ascertaining the genuineness of bank notes, bonds, certificates of stocks, and

Further, said invention has for its objectto.

15 provide an apparatus or device which may be readily operated'to ascertain whether the numbers thereof conform to or register with certain other identifying marks, letters or numerals used in cooperation therewith to serve as a means'for 20 indicating genuineness of said instruments,

Further, said invention has for its object to provide a simple, inexpensive and reliable device which may be readily operated to determine whether or not a given bank note or other printed 3. instrument bearing certain serial or consecutive number's agree or register with certain other identification marks, numerals or'letters usually appearing upon the face of the printed instrument of the character specified.

30 Further, said invention has for'its object to provide a device for the purposes specified by means of which the genuineness of bank-notes and other instruments be readily ascertained by checking the serial or consecutive number there- 35 of with certain plate letters, marks or characters which also appear upon the bank notes, and are associated with said serial or consecutive number.

to serve as means for checking the genuineness of said bank-notes or other instruments.

40 Other objects will in part be obvious and in part be pointed out hereinafter.

To the attainment of the aforesaid objects and ends my invention consists in the novel features of construction, and in the combination, connec- 45 tion and arrangement of parts'hereinafter more fully described and then pointed out in the claims.

dial detached from its support or enclosing frame.

In said drawing Ill designates a circular frame 5 or enclosure which may be made of wood, metal or other suitable material, and has its underside or back provided with a circular recess or cut-out portion H to receive a revoluble disk" or dial plate i2 having twelve circular apertures i3 therein arranged equally spaced apart adjacent to the periphery thereof. The apertures I3 are of a size to conveniently receive the end of the operator's finger when actuating the device. The dial plate I2 is also provided with a central aperture H to receive a tubular pivot i5 having 1 its upper end fixed in said aperture l4, and its lower end provided with ascrew-threaded portion i6 and a nut II to hold said dial plate l2 duly in position within the recessed portion thof th'e frame or support Ill. The lower end of the tubular pivot I5 is provided with an inwardly extending flange l8 upon which is supported a lens l9 held in position by a resilient split ring 20.

The face or front of the frame or enclosure i0 is provided with a segmental slot 2i having a length slightly less than one half the circumference of the support I II, and extending from a point coinciding with about the numeral 1 on an ordinary clock dial, and terminating at about the point where the numeral 6 appears on a the dial apertures i3, I3, 13, W513 is pro-- vided with the indicating numerais reading as follows 1/7, 2/8, 3/9, 4, 5, respxctively. The

' aperture l3 theoretically corresponds to the numerals 0/6, which are not shown. I

The dial plate i2 bears two concentric rows of letters viz: the inner row reads: A, B, C, D, E, F, A, B, C, D, E, F, and the outer row reads G, II, 40 I, J, K, 13, G, H, I, J, K, L, respecti'. sly. These letters are arranged radially in pairs, as follows: FL, AG, 3H, CI, DJ, EK, FL, AG, BH, CI, DJ, EKjand for the purposes of the invention these pairs of letters should be alternately different in color, size, type or otherwise so that the pairs of letters may be readily distinguished. By preference I color the letters F-L, BH, D-J green, and the intervening letters A-G, C-I, E-fK red, and in order to indicate the zero position of the so dial plate H the apertures corresponding to each pair of letters FL are provided with a suitable distinguishing mark, such as a colored ring 22 of distinctive type or form.

The face ofthe frame or enclosure i0 is further provided above the lower end of the segmental slot 2| with a rectangular sight-opening 28 to expose at one time any one of the radially-disposed pairs of letters 'F-L to El- 6 If it is desired to ascertain, for example, whether a bank note bearing, for example, the serial number 6834876623, and the plate letter H, is genuine, the operator proceeds, as follows:

The dial plate of the device is first. set to zero position in which the letters will appear at the sight opening 28. The operator then proceeds to dial the individual units of the serial number 83487862 as follows: to dial th numeral "8 he inserts the end oi his finger in the dial aperture l8" and partially rotates the dial until his finger contacts with the lower end of the slot 2i, and thus leave the dial with the by the dial aperture ii. The operator then continues to actuate the dial by dialing, in thesame manner, the units 3, 4, 8. '7, 2, successively, until all of said units, except the final unit "2", have been dialed. At this point the operator halts momentarily in order to determine whether the letters appearing at the sight opening 28 are red or green. In checking the bank note bearing the above specified serial number the letters will show green. This will inform the operator that he is to continue the dialing operation, and dial the final unit 2", and thereby complete the operation, at which stage the letters i H I will appear at the sight opening 28 in the front of the frame II, and establish genuineness of the bank note since it must bear either the plate letter B or H. I

If, for example, the bank note to be tested bears the serial number A001802, the dial is again set at zero-4. c. with the letters appearing at the sight opening 28. The operator then proceeds as before, except that he does not dial the two since the dial aperture llwhich corresponds to the numerals "0" and "8 is at the lowermost end of the segmental slot l2, and will not, therefore, permit the dial to be rotated for said numbers. The operator thereupon continues to dial the numbers 1 and 8, successively, omitg ting "0", next to the final number for the reasons above stated. The letter at the sight opening 23 in this operation will appear as red, and therefore require the operator to dial an additional number "3 by moving the dial aperture ll to so the position occupied by the dial aperture l8. Hereupon the operator dials the final number 2,

whereupon the letters 05 will appear at the sight opening 28 thus indicating that if the bank note bears either-the letter "B" or H"-it is genuine.

In operating the device it should always be borne in mind that if when dialing the number 70 of a bank note or other instrument, and the number next to the last one shows/the letters appearing at the sight-opening II to be red, an additional "3" must be dialed before the final numeral of the serial number is dialed. If the numeral 1| nexttothefinalof theserialnumbershowsgreen aperture l8" in the position previously occupied letters at the sight opening 28 then the additional 8" does not have to be dialed.

The lens I. provided in the tubular pivot 28 may be used to ascertain or distinguish the smali plate letter or character associated with the serial number and appearing upon the bank note, or to note the character of the engraving. This being particularly needed where the bank note is old and unduly worn.

it will, of course, be obvious that it is not necessary to have the disk It provided with twelve apertures II to W and the pairs of letters A-G to F-L associated therewith arranged in two series, as one series with its corresponding apertures will be sufficient, however, I prefer to construct the device with the indicating letters and numerals as illustrated since it renders the operation of the device more convenient.

Having thus described my said invention what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A device for determining the genuineness of bank notes and the like including relatively movable members, one of said members having a sightopening therein designating the zero position of the members and having a series of notations of can arithmetical system disposed sequentially thereon in spaced relation, the other member having a second series of notations disposed thereon for successive registry with said sight opening and having a spacing therebetween' corresponding to the spacing between said arithmetical notations,

said second notations corresponding to those appearing on the various notes in association with the serial numbers thereon and having a predetermined sequential order relative to and register-v ing with the arithmetical notation in the zero position of the members, and the alternate ones oi said second notations having a characteristic distinguishing the same from the remaining notations for indicating, when exposed after the next to the last digit oi the serial number of a note is dialed, that an additional dialing of a predetermined numeral is then required, and the two series of notations being coordinated so that when the several digits of the serial number of a note and said predeterminednumeral, if required, are dialed by a succession of movements of the second member through jistances differing in accordance with the numeral dialed, the notation of the second series properly associated with the serial number upon such note will be exposed to view through said sight-opening.

2. A device as claimed in claim 1 in which the second series of notations comprise in succession the letters FL, AG, B3, C1, DJ and EK.

3. A device for determining the genuineness oi bank notes and the like including relatively movable members having a zero position relative to each other, one of said members having a series oi substantially equally spaced devices whereby said last member can be moved from zero position through one or more units of distance representing the spacing between said devices to different successive settings, notations of an arithmetical series upon the other member associated with said devices for numerically indicating the positions thereof relative to the zero position, whereby the several notations of a series on the bank note may be individually dialed, and a second series of notations on the movable member associated with said devices in sequential order and one thereof adapted to be exposed through the relatively stationary member at each setting, said second notations comprising in succession the letters I'L, AG, BB, CI, DJ and EK alternately difl'erentlated for indicating, when-exposed after the next to the last digit oi the serial number of a bank note is dialed, that an additional dialing of a predetermined numeral is then required and corresponding to those appearing on the notes in association with the serial numbers thereof, said two series of notations being coordinated in arrangement to expose to view, when the series of notations on the note and said predetermined numeral, if required, are dialed, the associated notation on the note.

4. A device of the character described comprising a support, an arc-shaped slot in said support, and a sight opening adjacent one end of said arc-shaped slot, a disk revolubly mounted on said support and having uniformly spaced apertures about the margin of the disk having certain of the apertures accessible through said arc-shaped slot, the notations of an arithmetical system disposed upon the front of said support in juxtaposition to the apertures exposed through said arc-shaped slot and arranged in a sequential order to permit of the individual dialing of the several digits of the serial number of the instrument whose genuineness is to be tested, and two concentric series of indicating characters corresponding to those appearing together with the serial number on the instruments to be tested, said characters being disposed in sequential order upon said disk in juxtaposition to said apertures for registry successively with said sight-opening, and the alternate ones thereof having a characteristic distinguishing the same from the remaining ones for indicating, when exposed after the next to the last digit of the serial number of the instrument is dialed, that an additional dialing of a predetermined numeral is then required, said arithmetical notationsand said indicating characters' being coordinated in arrangement to ex-.

pose through said sight opening, when a given number and said additional numeral, if required, are dialed, the character proper to the instrument bearing said number.

5. A device for determining the genuineness of bank notes and the like including relatively movable members, one of said members having a sight-opening therein designating the zero position of the parts and having a series of notations of an arithmetical system disposed thereon, said notations including those corresponding to the numerals 1 to 5 arranged sequentially in spaced relation and corresponding to the numerals 7, 8 and 9 disposed at positions corresponding to the positions of the numerals 1 to 3, the other member having a second series of twelve notations arranged thereon in pairs in sequential order with the spacings therebetween corresponding to the spacings between said arithmetical notations, said second notations corresponding to those appearing on the various notes in association with the serial numbers thereon and the alternate pairs thereof having a characteristic distinguishing the same from the remaining pairs for indi eating, when exposed after the next to the last digit of the serial number of the instrument is dialed, that an additional dialing of a predetermined numeral is then required, and said pairs of notation being coordinated in sequence with said arithmetical notations in the zero position of the members so that when several digits of the serial number of a note and said predetermined numeral, if required, are dialed by a succession of movements of the second member through distances differing in accordance with the numeral dialed; the notation of the second series properly associated with such serial number upon the note will be exposed to view through said sight-opening.

6. A device for determining the genuineness of bank notes, including a body having a top wall, a rotatable member in said body underlying said top wall, said member having a succession of duplicate series of angularly spaced indicia including letters, and said top wall having a plurality of angularly spaced numerals adapted to be radially alined with the indicia of one of said series in the zero position of the device, the alteris then required, and the numerals and letters 1 being coordinated according to the successive elements of the serial numbers and the check letters of bank notes, said member having angularly spaced devices in fixed individual relation to the indicia of the successive series for moving the member and causing the successive devices to aline with said numerals, said top wall having a 

